"Nekomamushi, Furaese, Inuarashi—what are you doing here?"
Seeing the three of them, the Red Hair crew exclaimed in surprise. They were also quite happy. Though their captains didn't exactly see eye to eye (on one side at least), the rest of the crew had fought side by side. Their bonds were forged in life-or-death battles.
The scene of taking down Big Mom together was still fresh in their memories.
Big Mom: Of course it's fresh—it hasn't even been a hundred chapters yet.
"You idiots, we've been watching for ages and you still haven't noticed. You're really not up to par—the mighty Red Hair Pirates, one of the Four Emperors, and you don't look so impressive!" Nekomamushi quipped venomously.
In the time it took him to say that, Furaese and Inuarashi had already teamed up and taken care of Fukuro.
Meanwhile, Buggy was directing Kawamatsu to bring the ship alongside.
"Well, well, Shanks—haven't seen you in years and the Red Hair Pirates have really gone downhill, huh?" Buggy's face immediately wore that infuriating smug look the moment he opened his mouth. The expression made you want to punch him.
But the Red Hair crew had more or less gotten used to this guy's personality. And the kind of people who ended up on Shanks' ship tended to have fairly good tempers. They weren't about to get angry over a few words.
Except for—
"Ha? Who's this ugly red-nosed freak? How dare he look down on us—I'll kill him!" Ace couldn't take it anymore. This blue-haired, red-nosed clown with face paint smeared all over had the audacity to talk down to the Red Hair Pirates? He clearly didn't know how to spell the word "death."
Besides, this clown obviously had "comic relief character" written all over him. What kind of skills could someone like that possibly have?
Hearing Ace's words, the Red Hair crew didn't get anxious—instead, they started egging things on.
"Oh, Ace's got guts! What do you say, Captain? Since Ace's feeling brave, why not give him a chance to lop off Buggy's head for you?" Lucky Roux took a bite of his chicken leg and grinned.
"Lop off Buggy's head? That's easy—not even hard, right? You don't even need hands for that. Buggy's head rolls around on its own all the time!" Bonk Punch burst out laughing, and the monkey on his shoulder reached out to scratch his face as if it wholeheartedly agreed with Bonk's assessment.
"Hey, hey—reel it in a little." Shanks tugged at the corner of his mouth, fighting back a laugh.
Of course he understood what everyone was doing. Ace had become increasingly difficult over the past few years—a troublemaker who stirred up drama everywhere on the ship. They just wanted to see him get embarrassed.
After all, Buggy wouldn't really hold a grudge against a brat like Ace. Teaching the kid a lesson to take him down a peg or two wasn't a bad idea.
Shanks could already tell—these people were no saints!
So he decisively chose to join in.
"Come on, you all know that even though Buggy's weak and basically just a comedian—even weaker than Monsutaa—there's no way Ace could actually beat Buggy!" Shanks declared with exaggerated flair.
Buggy: ???
Monsutaa: ???
Forget Buggy—even that monkey named Monsutaa was thrown for a loop.
Buggy was not pleased. What did that mean? What do you mean "weak"? What do you mean "even worse than a child and a monkey"? Have you no manners?
The monkey was also not pleased. What did that mean? What do you mean "even worse than Monsutaa"?
Wait—who did you say is worse than me?
Oh, Buggy.
Then that's fine.
Monsutaa was immediately pleased. It happily wiggled its red rear end at Buggy.
This was probably the most brutal roast Buggy had ever received.
Shanks! What an infuriating guy!
Buggy's eyes looked like they could tear Shanks to shreds at any moment.
The other person just as angry was Ace. This despicable Shanks—how dare he look down on me! Ace was so furious his teeth ached. What do you mean "even though he's weak and worse than a monkey, he's still stronger than you"?
How infuriating!
Ace had already forgotten that, in reality, he was the only person present who genuinely couldn't beat the monkey.
But he couldn't think about that right now. The feeling of being looked down upon made him dizzy with rage. He charged forward, pointed at Buggy, and shouted:
"Just you watch—I'll cut off that guy's head!"
Buggy: …
"Are all the apprentice pirates on your ship this brave?" Buggy had forgotten his anger and actually found this kid Ace quite interesting.
Based on Furaese's intel, it seemed this kid and that girl earlier were both children of the Pirate King?
He began sizing up Ace, but no matter how he looked, he couldn't see anything special about the kid. Looks like the Pirate King's children were nothing special after all.
Setting everything else aside, Yamato—already fifteen—had surpassed that girl Ann in combat power.
"You looking down on me? When I twist your head off, you'll regret treating me like an ordinary brat!" Ace snarled viciously!
He was brimming with intensity. To make his expression look even more menacing, he was scrunching his facial features with all his might, which actually made him look kind of funny.
After his fierce declaration, Ace was immediately dumbfounded.
Because Buggy had simply plucked his own head off, placed it in his palm, and was casually tossing it around. The head, being tossed back and forth like a ball, was even blinking its eyes.
"You think you need to cut off my head? I'll just set it right here. If you've got the skill, go ahead and snatch it, kid." Buggy's head made a face at Ace, and everyone else burst into laughter.
Ace had never seen anything like this. His earlier threat to twist off Buggy's head had just been bravado—talk to scare the enemy. He never expected someone could actually remove their own head and then make faces at you.
"Look at Ace—he's stunned!"
"HAHAHAHA, this is so funny I'm going to mock him for the rest of his life!"
Buggy was quite satisfied with Ace's expression too. He stopped picking on the kid and instead turned his attention back to Shanks.
"Hey Shanks, your ship's apprentice doesn't seem any better than you—totally low-tier pirate behavior! How about it? Want to have our apprentices have a little competition?"
"Your apprentice? Buggy, you actually have an apprentice?" Shanks asked, surprised.
He genuinely didn't know Buggy had taken on an apprentice. In truth, Uta had been picked up by Furaese several years ago. Back then, Uta was only two. Now, at nine years old, she had grown considerably.
"Hey, Uta—come on out and have a spar with this black-haired brat!"
At Buggy's call, a cute little girl in a dress slowly walked out.
However…
Uta pulled a face. "No way! Competing over and over—how immature can you be, Buggy!"
[
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